Denmark x Reader - Not What He Meant
by RapunzelInTheSnow
Summary: Reader-chan is a busker...


**If you need music to this, I find the best for this chapter is Smile like You Mean It by the Killers. I'm very happy to have this read by you all, and hope the emotional ups and downs aren't too much of a change from The Winged Girl's humour genre.**

**Thanks! Please review!**

In the cold Underworld, Grim was relaxing before he picked up his scythe. It trembled and he immediately sensed that something was very wrong with the spirit who fuelled his power. Clicking his fingers he called the Morrigan's daughter forward.

"Find out what's wrong with him. Quickly." He glared at her and she turned into a grey mist, inside the scythe's world.

It was terrifying to see the state Bran was in. He had curled up with a black sandstorm swirling about him and the images of people who had died flickering around him. Tormented faces changed with each passing second, while the emotion on their faces was the same. But Bran's face couldn't be seen for the hair covering it, and that scared the Morrigan's daughter the most.

She looked around the room he was in and noticed for the first time exactly how horrible it was. No doors, no windows, just four metal walls and a floor of the same. No comfort furnished it, no fie provided the strange light she was just able to see by. It was threatening in a way, and so clinical. She was aware of Bran moving about and turned back to look at him.

"What?"

"I don't even know your name!" he screamed at her, a few tears racing down his cheeks. He glared at her before continuing.

"Why? Why are you dead? You're obsessed with that…" He trailed off and dropped his face again. The Morrigan's daughter felt a stab of something – she wasn't sure what – pierce her heart and stay there like a shard of ice.

He was dead too! He may not have technically been killed but he was as good as! And she'd chosen to die for love, wasn't that surely romantic? She hadn't exactly meant to die, but she had, and she was still in a way living on. And what did he care? He was just in love with Valentina and desperate to get back to breaking his heart watching her and Jack spiral further down falling in love with each other.

Suddenly, she felt like a dam had broken somewhere and knelt beside him. She reached out and held his hand so that he would look at her.

"Alexa Sidhe-na- Morrigan," she said, in a quiet tone. He frowned at her, not quite understanding. She moved so that she was sitting in front of him, orange dreadlocks making a soft noise as they scraped along the floor.

"That's my name. You said you didn't know it. That was my name while I was alive. And…"

Bran felt his heart pang with another stab of emotion as she told him something he was sure that Grim did not know. He looked into her eyes.

"Thank you." He muttered it and to Alexa it felt like a bullet or maybe a damnation; gratitude from someone whose death she had helped to cause, not really thinking about him, just about harming or hurting Valentina. And he had meant to sacrifice himself for a platonic love.

She realised now that while he loved Valentina, it was as a friend, a friend who he loved deeply and would do anything for. He hadn't wanted to hurt anyone, but to save Valentina from unhappiness.

She backed away, and fell from the scythe onto the floor of the vast cavern of Grim's throne room. The eternal Lord of Death sat on his throne of emerald skulls, and glared at her.

"Is he better? My scythe is not working as it should. Go back, and…" he lowered his voice so that it practically dripped with venom, "_don't come back until my power is as it should be!"_

She felt stabbed, almost. He was looking at her with such annoyance and hatred that it was blatant he felt nothing but those emotions for her. He'd been so kind! And she'd given up her family for him, to save him from the void he had assured her he might be swallowed into if his scythe was not repaired. After that hadn't worked, of course she had helped him control the ghost with what little power she had left, helped him with his plans to get Valentina into the scythe, and given everything up for him. She fled, spectral tears spilling over and disappearing before they hit the floor, collapsing in a heap and sobbing.

He had used her, and she had been stupid enough to trust him so much so that he was able to do so. He hated her, hated her presence and just wanted her powers, saw her as a tool to get more power and probably stopped her mom from attacking him by saying he would hurt her. It was like she had been soaked with cold, icy water; the shock travelled up and down her veins, causing damage to her heart with every second. Arms wrapped around her suddenly and she was shushed and rocked just as if she was five again, while she cried into the other's shoulder.

"He made you cry? I hate him!" Bran growled, patting her back so that she could cry as she needed to. Alexa finally started to stop crying, but Bran didn't want to let her go. He wanted to protect her against Grim, stop her from loving him.

He didn't know why he had fallen for Alexa. He'd already fallen for Val before he had realized it was just a crush and that he was happy she was in love with Jack, but now he had fallen once more for a beautiful girl who was in love with someone else. Only this time, that someone else was a bloody prick with no sense of how to behave, and a seriously obsessive addiction to power.

Why, why couldn't he have met Alexa while she was alive?

…

In the kitchen, Pitch was waiting for his crumpets to pop out of the toaster when he heard a little sniffling sound.

Turning, he saw Valentina staring in confusion, fingers finding the tears that were sweeping down her cheekbones, and heard her say in a shocked little voice, "Bran!"

He raced towards her, but Jack leapt in front of him, not understanding, and he stared helplessly over the winter spirit's shoulder at the crying girl who was the only link between him and his son. Val stood up and looked at him.

"I don't know what's wrong…" She said it, shocked, as she tried to reach into the Underworld telepathically.

"Stop it! You could go mad if you send your mind to Grim's realm!" Pitch warned her, and Jack stepped aside as he realised what was happening, instead placing his hands on her shoulders.


End file.
